Abstract

The article analyses Monica Vitti’s two autobiographies published during the 1990s – Sette sottane. Un’autobiografia involontaria (1993) and Il letto è una rosa (1995) – comparing them with the actress’s statements in the broader media context (press and TV) and with some of the characters she played. Traversed by continuous cross-references and thematic resonances, the two texts constitute a privileged point of observation on Vitti’s artistic and political positioning in post-World War II Italy: by using autobiography as a method of (self-)analysis, the actress has provided a valuable reflection on acting, on the emancipation of women, on the power of writing and acting as a mode of healing from melancholy. The article traces out a possible interpretative map, in connection with XX century thought by women who tackled the theme of liberation and of becoming-a-subject.